Anxiety mounts among working moms over strike planned by kindergartens

Anxiety is mounting among South Korean working moms over a rare strike planned by thousands of private kindergartens or nursery schools which have demanded greater state subsidies and support to ride out their financial crisis caused by a chronic low birthrate.

An association of some 4,100 private kindergartens plans to stage a one-day general strike on September 18 and a five-day work stoppage from September 25. It warned of more trouble unless their demands are met.

The education ministry argued the actual number of striking schools would be far smaller than expected, based on a quick survey that failed to allay concerns among working moms. The ministry promised to house private school pupils at state facilities for temporary care.

Both public schools and private schools receive state funding, although private schools get less. Kindergarten is optional and at age 7, children must move on to 6 years compulsory elementary education. Public kindergarten pupils get 980,000 won each, compared to 220,000 won for private school students. Working moms prefer state schools, but they have to go through fierce competition like a lottery.

Public kindergartens care about 24 percent of all pupils. Private schools want equal treatment and oppose a government plan to build more state-run facilities. "All parents should be given the same benefits," the association said in a statement. " Child education policies are biased in favor of a small number of public kindergartens."

For years, South Korea has taken a series of measures to tackle its fast aging population and a low birthrate which would hurt Asia's fourth-largest economy. Various government incentives including cash rewards have been offered to have more children, but an increasing number of women work and want to hold onto their career, leading them to delay marriage and have children late.

South Korea has the lowest fertility rate among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The fertility rate, or the average number of babies that a woman is projected to have during her lifetime, reached 1.17 in 2016, down from 1.24 a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. The number of newborns declined 7.3 percent to an all-time low of 406,200 last year.

Education ministry data showed the number of elementary and secondary school students this year declined 2.5 percent from a year ago. The number of students attending kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools fell 2.5 percent on-year to 6.46 million as of April 1 this year.